Our latest observations in user experience research.

At AnswerLab, we love to try new online services. One exciting trend we’ve noticed is the increase of personalized shopping services, particularly in the food and fashion realm. There are many different takes on this trend, from employing real-life experts to creating great UX that anticipates the user’s needs.

What led your last ten users to your site? How does your product help each user achieve her goals? What solutions are offered by another company that are easier to use (or cheaper) than your product? Journey maps can help you understand where your product fits in the context of a users busy life, and […]

While in-depth user research is invaluable for honing insights throughout the development cycle, some design and development teams will benefit from studies with a rapid turnaround time, performed with fewer participants than a traditional study. These zippy studies identify the low-hanging fruit and suggest ways to move forward quickly in order to speed the design […]

At AnswerLab, employees receive an annual “tech benefit,” an allowance that encourages us to purchase new digital tools and technologies to make our work or personal lives easier and to try out innovations in user experience. My most recent purchase, TripIt Pro, is a travel planning app that creates a detailed itinerary by scraping data […]

Technology is shaking up healthcare – and not just with advances in medical devices and electronic medical records. Each of us is poised to become our own mobile lab simply by harnessing technology that’s already in our pockets. While the health-minded have been using mini devices to monitor daily movement (e.g. Fitbit) or track their […]

Given my background in digital user experience research and psychology, it’s perhaps no surprise that I was immediately intrigued when I first heard of Lumosity. Many of us go to great lengths to make sure our body is and stays fit. But what do we do to make sure our brain stays fit? Science suggests: play games!

A new season of Mad Men begins on April 7, and with it may come continued exposure to the critical role of focus groups in market research. Focus groups have become objects of scorn by some, bogged down with a bad rap for pitfalls like “group think,” dominant or under-engaged respondents, and participants a bit […]

These days, exceptional user experience isn’t a nice-to-have; it separates the winning businesses from the middling ones. Building a great user experience means understanding your customers through research. Conducting research doesn’t have to be a long, exhaustive, or expensive process. Like technology, research is evolving, too! When UX researchers use terms like “lean” and “agile” […]

As we move forward on our mission to be the most trusted source for user experience research in the world, we are fully aware that our success depends almost exclusively on our ability to attract and retain a talented team. In looking back over the past few years, I’ve identified three initiatives that I think […]

When was the last time you had an amazing experience at a US Post Office? Mine was just a couple of weeks ago, mailing packages for the holidays and loving the after-hours ease of posting packages via the automated kiosks! I was pleasantly surprised at how many principles of good design the USPS nailed with […]